The construction industry struggles with high levels of inefficiency regularly. Projects of larger areas take 20 % more than the expected time to complete and over 80% are overboard than the estimated budget.
Compared to the other sectors the construction industry involves large amounts of work-force, working on the ground. Even though there are significant long-term benefits, there is zero embracing of the newer digital technologies involved in the sector. This increases the amount of risk involving factors and threats to the people in the workforce.
In the past few years, drones in construction have been compelling to newer trends. Drones in the construction industry are the reasons there are drastic changes in this sector.
How Are Drones Used in Construction?
Here are the 8 reasons that drones in the construction industry are changing the industry: –
- Tracking equipment’s-
Equipment tracking on the construction sites has become a tedious task. This gets covered when drones in construction are sent to capture images and scan the areas of construction sites which makes it easier to understand what instrument is kept where. This is one of the important uses of drones in construction.
- Planning of projects
Planning becomes easier and 20 times faster when scanning the entire region is done with the help of a drone.
- Valuable trail of documents
This data helps in the creation of a valuable trail of documents and viewing of the same without the physical presence of a particular person on the field. At times the managers or workers, make it a point to go through this data to understand the progress which is happening on the site without visiting the place in real.
- Security Surveillance
Drones used for construction help in providing job site security and securing storage pieces of equipment, whose aerial photographs aerial scanned during the process.
- Personnel Safety
Back in time, humans or workers used to climb up hazardous regions to check for manual measurements of construction sites. This has completely been eliminated ever since construction site drones are successfully sent to do the needful. Drones in construction are sent at higher elevations to keep a check on the current progress and the data is then compared with the earlier scanned images to check the progress.
- Structure Inspection and Photography
The process of the land survey that is done by the construction drone. This eliminates the possibility of human errors. Volume, height, area, and calculation that is done with the help of processing software after collection of construction drone data helps in giving accurate measurements of the side which reduces any possibility of errors.
- Catering re-development projects
A new trend of a redevelopment project that has been stepping in, in the newer times it is also a work carried out by construction drones. The data that is collected by the drones involves, demolishing an old building and dumping the same chunk at the new site. This data is further processed with the help of the volume calculation method that is too done with the help of construction drone scanned imagery.
The Edge of Construction Drones
Apart from all this, an important concept that needs to be taken into consideration during a construction project is the proper monitoring of waste. The same is carried out by drones in construction at regular intervals. Drones in construction industry have effectively worked in making the life of all the people on the field extremely easy.
This not only involves the workforce that is basically seen on ground but it also includes the managing committee and the people who bid for the contract. Construction site drones basically helps in the entire bidding process and make the proposal unique and professional. This involves the data that is sent in various formats. Orthomosaic drawings, digital elevation, models and point clouds of various construction sites. Data is sent for the bidding process and this is exactly how the professionals earn major chunks by providing accurate information of the land that is surveyor and which is to be gone under construction. After the construction process has been incurred, drones on construction sites can be sent for a flight which basically inspect instantly for rooftops and especially thermal drone cameras that can detect water leaks.
The use of drones in construction is a majorly done work for the correct installation of projects and its equipments. The data that is collected by drone is generally in the format of images or videography. This data is later processed and 3-D models are made out of them, which basically helps in reducing progress shots of the region. The shots can be later used as a matter of marketing purpose to basically sell the region or the constructed plot at a higher price.
Drones in construction industry are not only being used for providing engaging and accurate data for the process but they have also been successful in tracking the safety and security of each and every worker. This basically involves tracking of the workers helmet, his tracksuit and other equipments that can also pose a threat if they are left unattended. These techniques basically help in making the people on site aware about their belongings and also help in tracking any kinds of threats or problems that can pose a threat in the near future.
The construction industry has always been following the age old methods that are traditional and pretty much human based and adoption of drone technology all of a sudden by the newer generations is making the work easier but the process is a bit difficult. The older generation people or the workforce is completely unaware about the new technology, find the usage of drone helpful but difficult to adapt to it. Yet drones have successfully made it a point to make the entire work easier and convenient as well as user-friendly so that the use of drones in projects of acres and acres of land can be acquired with the help of the drone data and can be processed using different softwares. A drone on the job side is not only just used or accessed by the drone pilot, but in construction work it is used by the superintendent, technology, manager, project managers, project, executives and general managers and even C level workers.
Ever since the advent of drone technology in the construction has completely changed, lives of people. It has also been helpful in progress tracking and communication as well as in pre-construction and site planning. Drones are not only used during the core construction but they are also used before and after.
A complete detailed guide and survey of the entire land takes place before a single change is done to the field. It is the construction industry that has been using dozens of drones and has been the fastest growing commercial adopters of aerial data which come from the construction drones. Apart from mining, agriculture, surveying and real estate construction industry uses drones for about 239% since the past entire decade.
According to an article of January 9, 2017 report, it is estimated that drone industry will have a market value of around $20.5 billion by 2025 with an estimated 6.3 million units being sold. According to drone deploy blog June 7, 2018 it is clearly stated that the construction industry is the fastest growing segment of the drone industry surging to 39% over the last year. The FAA Report of 2018 clearly stated that the end of 2017, there were around 1, 10,604 drones registered with their industry which went up to 150% from 2016.
Types of Construction Drones
Now the question rises- which type of drones are generally used in areas that cover large sides of construction?
Drones can be as small as the size of a palm, or they can be as large as a military sized aircraft, carrying hundreds of pounds. Apart from survey, keeping a check of the equipments, maintaining security building a proposal that is worth gazillion pounds an important task of the drones is to be a bid by the laws and rules as a regular aircraft and be attention to the additional rules and regulations as well as adhere to the same. Flying in any region that is not in the construction region can cause legal issues for the builder.
According to a 2016 Mackenzie report, aerial vehicles like that of UAVs commonly referred to as drones will dramatically and drastically improve the accuracy and speed at which construction projects are completed in the near future. A dramatic decrease in the manufacturing cost of technology has dropped the prices of professional grade drones for construction, those with mountable, lightweight HD, camera and other survey equipments to as little as $700. This technology investment alone can dramatically improve service side, visibility, progress report and inspection processes.
Drones in the past decade have also proved a point of instilling client confidence because of which there have been more and more projects that are been given to companies that are have to do and technology. The accuracy and the perfect measurement of the data that is been processed collected from the drone has made it a point for investors to invest in a lot of drone related work. The amount of time that has been saved in various number of unique ways has basically increased the amount of the construction projects over the entire country. Time is one of the most valuable commodities at the job site. Many clients in the construction industry report drones to get faster and deliverable data. Significantly faster than any other methods and their counterparts monitoring of sides over a long period of time also allows for better management of side and preventing large amounts of problems. As we talked about the same earlier reduction of risks and the safety and security that has been taken care by the entire drone technology. The construction industry has also made it to a point to reduce the amount of accidents that have been taking place in the construction areas. Workers find it even more safer and secured to work in dangerous regions with the thought in the back of the mind that the entire site is been scanned and any problem in the near future can be easily detected.
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